West Virginia is in control of the Tucson Regional and has a chance to win it on Sunday.
For the second day in a row, the Mountaineers led a left-handed pitcher to victory. This time, West Virginia got 7 2/3 solid innings from Tyler Switalski to lead the way in a 5-2 win over Grand Canyon on Saturday night at Hi Corbett Field.
No. 3 West Virginia now awaits the winner of No. 2 Dallas Baptist-No. 4 Grand Canyon in Sunday’s elimination game at 3 p.m. The winner will have to defeat the Mountaineers (35-22) twice starting at 9 pm on Sunday. If necessary, a winner-take-all game for the regional championship would be played on Monday.
DBU avoided elimination by defeating top seed Arizona, 7-0, earlier Saturday.
A day after a masterful four-hit complete game from left-hander Derek Clark paved the way for a 4-1 victory against DBU, Switalski pitched more than five innings for the first time this season.
He was barely threatened throughout by the Lopes, who scored their only run in the second on a sacrifice fly by Eddy Pelc, which followed a pair of singles to start the inning.
That gave Grand Canyon (35-24) a brief lead, although West Virginia tied it in the home half of that inning. Reed Chumley hit a leadoff single, stole second and scored with two outs on Brodie Kresser’s single.
After Switalski retired GCU in order in the third and fourth innings, the Mountaineers gained control with a four-run third, taking advantage of a pair of walks and a hit batter. Kresser’s two-run single made the score 3-1, and Ben Lumsden followed with an infield single to score Michael Perazza.
B4 | Lopes 1, Montañeros 3
Brodie appears again!#SaveWV pic.twitter.com/7QVaSFvHj0
– WVU Baseball (@WVUBaseball) June 2, 2024
A fielder’s choice to third by Skylar King allowed Kresser to score the final run of that inning.
That was all the offense the Mountaineers could muster, but Switalski prevented Pelc’s fifth-inning single by inducing an inning-ending double play off the bat of Alton Gylesman.
West Virginia turned a third and final double play to end the sixth inning, and ended the top of the seventh with Grant Hussey making a noteworthy catch just before entering the dugout on Beau Ankeney’s fly ball.
ARE YOU KIDDING, MAN!!
For the second day in a row he enters the dugout to catch it!#SCTop10 | @Grant_Hussey616 pic.twitter.com/19FRpr1zJP
– WVU Baseball (@WVUBaseball) June 2, 2024
Switalski allowed two singles and recorded two outs in the eighth and was thrown out by Hambleton Oliver.
Tyler Wilson hit a well-hit fly ball to right to greet Oliver, but Lumsden caught it to end GCU’s half of the eighth.
The Mountaineers stranded two in scoring position in the eighth and then had to endure tense moments in the ninth.
Oliver gave up consecutive singles to start the inning and after a strikeout, Dustin Crenshaw singled through the right side to spark his team’s second run.
When Michael Diaz followed with a single, it was four hits for five batters against Oliver, but he induced a Pelc fly out to shortstop JJ Wetherholt with the tying run on base.
Oliver was then replaced by Carson Estridge, who retired Marcus Galván with a grounder to short on his first and only pitch.
Switalski struck out three, walked one and limited GCU to six hits while improving to 5-2.
Estridge earned his fourth save of the season.
Kresser led the offensive charge with two hits and three RBIs.
Connor Madison, the second of four Lopes pitchers used, suffered the loss after allowing four runs in two innings.
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